Former business owner sentenced in $1M fraud scheme

WAUSAU – A former Wausau business owner convicted on charges related to a mortgage and securities fraud scheme and sexual assault was sentenced Wednesday to 11 years in prison for bilking people out of more than $1 million.

Jay Fischer, 54, of Marion defrauded homeowners and real estate investors in a years-long scheme that snared people across Wisconsin and netted him more than $1.2 million, according to a Wisconsin Department of Justice news release.

He was convicted in April of racketeering, theft, securities fraud, fraudulent writings, felony bail jumping, failure to file an income tax return, and failure to file a corporate tax return, according to the DOJ. He was sentenced in Marathon County Circuit Court on those and other charges.

Fischer used the Wausau business he operated, Valley Title, a closing agent for residential home sales and refinances, to commit mortgage fraud, according to the news release. He was accused of keeping about $1 million from eight mortgages by failing to pay off old mortgages, according to the complaint.

Residences in Barron, Dane, Marathon, Vilas and Wood counties were part of his scheme.

He also used his other former business, Crazy J's Campground in Waupaca County, to defraud four investors, who lost about $200,000, leading to the securities fraud charge, according to the release.

In January 2013, Fischer also was charged with several sex offenses while the fraud cases were moving through the court system. A 14-year-old girl came forward, saying she was forced to have sexual contact with him in 2010 and then again in 2012, months before she went to investigators.

Fischer was sentenced Wednesday on charges of second-degree sexual assault of a child and fourth-degree sexual assault. He will serve the sentences on those charges — seven years and three months in prison with 10 years of extended supervision, and nine months in jail, respectively — at the same time as the sentences on financial charges, according to online court records.

Alison Dirr can be reached at 715-845-0658. Find her on Twitter as @AlisonDirr.